POCASSET, MA—The site of the proposed south side fire station remains undetermined after the issue of response times was raised.
"It's all up in the air," said Carol Lynch, a member of the South Side Fire Station Feasibility and Design Building Committee. "We are back to the drawing board."
The committee has identified the county-owned land in Pocasset as the preferred site for the proposed fire station that would replace the two aging stations in Monument Beach and Pocasset that serve villages on the south side of the canal.
At last week's special town meeting, voters approved funding up to $900,000 to buy two parcels, including over 65 acres off County Road and almost 16 acres at 100 Dr. Julius Kelley Lane.
Barnstable County wants to sell the property as surplus, according to Mary Jane Mastrangelo, chairwoman of the Finance Committee. If the state decides not to buy it, the option goes to the town, she said.
The county property is the site of Cape Cod Senior Residences, a community garden and the Valley Farm Thrift store.
Bourne currently has four stations, including town headquarters located in Sagamore Beach, Station 1 in Buzzards Bay, Station 4 in Pocasset and Station 2, an unstaffed station in Monument Beach.
The only working station on the Cape side of the canal is the Pocasset Station at 311 Barlows Landing Road, which is staffed with one lieutenant and two firefighters, who are also paramedics and EMTs.
The Monument Beach station was closed years ago and converted to a call operation, and coverage for villages of Pocasset, Cataumet and Monument Beach was shifted to the Pocasset station, which has been operating for about 80 years, according to Selectman Peter Meier, a member of the south side station committee.
The station is also located in a flood zone and is pumping out water from the basement 24 hours a day, all week, Lynch said. "It's not ideal."
"They are pretty much out of date," said former Fire Chief Martin Greene of the two stations.
Once a location is determined, initial plans are in place to build a new, one-story station within a residential neighborhood, Lynch said, but those plans could change depending on where it goes.
The new station as it is currently designed has about eight bays and will have a similar amount of office and living space that exists in the two current stations, said Galon "Skip" Barlow Jr., chairman of the south side station committee.
A cost estimate for the project would depend on the location, according to Barlow. Building on county land, which already has infrastructure in place, could be a lot cheaper than another site, such as the water district land off County Road, where no infrastructure exists, he said.
Meier said the town commissioned a study to merge both south side stations, but projects such as the new police station, DPW building and intermediate school took precedence.
Now, he said, "It's time to move forward."
There have been questions raised about whether the county land location would provide the best response time for the area.
Mastrangelo suggested that the committee conduct a response time analysis to determine if there is a need for two stations rather than one, and to complete the study before the project goes before the Capital Outlay Committee and the Finance Committee.
"If we are going to be putting millions of dollars into a station or stations, we need to understand that the locations that are chosen will meet the response times," Mastrangelo said.
The choice of the county-owned parcel as the preferred site for the new station prompted Greene to resign from the committee. He has said he believes the location will not meet the National Fire Protection Association response time guidelines and will have a negative impact on the response time on the majority of the calls.
"The south side is a lot busier than it was 10 or 15 years ago," he said.
The selectmen have the final say as to the station's location before town meeting, Meier said.
"A fire station on the south side of the canal is long overdue," he said.
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